On this page

• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • Untitled
  • 

    THE RETRIBUTION OF CANT "England expects...

  • 

    J.NfJI.ANI) AND AMIaltlCA A'I' TIITKEK H...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The "Screw" In The Counties. Sir George ...

    appeals to bigotry against the Liberal candidate , whom he backbites in the cottage and slanders in the street . These are pleasant glances at our English county elections in 18521 But what shall we say of grey-headed magistrates , grinning with most unseemly gestures at the crowd before the hustings , or terrifying bedridden electors out of their promises ; of magistrates blockading the polling-books , and prompting bewildered electors to vote by the card ; of tradesmen menaced with loss of custom by ladies , or with writs by mort-£ 3 _<* ee lawyers ; of electors voting against their will ,

    or afraid to vote at all—the franchise rendered nugatory or fatal to them ? We might fill columns with scandals , of which we have proofs only too ample and too positive ; but these will suffice to awaken the public mind to the spectacle of our county elections under the existing system—a system which must be improved or destroyed . Yet what is the consequence of this tyranny ? —the fatal and necessary one . Where there was no Liberal party , or if it existed , in a state of torpor , a spirit nas been aroused , an instinct of manhood , a sentiment of resistance to oppression , which Englishmen have not yet wholly lost .

    Admirable have been the exceptions to the herd of panic-driven electors : braving all losses , men have stood forth and asserted their rights ; and the triumph of oppression bids fair to prove more fatal to Landlordism than many constitutional defeats . Extension of the suffrage , and the ballot , is now the cry of electors and non-electors alike ; and in the meanwhile , organization of resistance and registration of independence . Public opinion will denounce what it cannot prevent , and will point out the remedy where it cannot secure the punishment .

    Ar01505

    The Retribution Of Cant "England Expects...

    THE _RETRIBUTION OF CANT "England expects no man to do his duty . " Englishmen in every class are adopting a habit of making a grand distinction between the public opinions which they maintain and the private opinions which they really hold , to such a degree , that no man expects any one of his neighbours to stand up for his opinions . Those who have been trading on pretences in the political market find that for their own use they can purchase nothing else , either for love or monev .

    Shadow -fighting is an old game ; but never was it carried to so extravagant a pitch as in the present election , especially by the party that calls itself Conservative . "Jacobinism , " we are told , is rampant , and Eome has a conspiracy and accomplices in England . The Romish part y in Ireland , writes the Herald , " are engaged in a systematic effort to overthrow the whole British

    system , civil and religious , in that island ; " and the electors of Middlesex are told to remember that Mr . Osborne " is the open and undisguised champion of these men and of their principles . " Again , we are threatened with Jaeooinism and revolution—from Manchester ; a " Democracy , " of which Richard Cobden is the " Danton , " and whoso flag , unfurled by Sir James Graham , the Duke of Newcastle flaunts in tho face of the

    - Lorda 1 _-A . _«»< _l-wl , il _« ili o _Uritifcih _iniUi _. i io nuTuiuoned to resist that Jacobinism and that conspiracy , the real dangers that are growing in the bosom of society are unheeded . " The vile rabble , " as Mr . Beresford publicly calls it—meaning seven-eighths of this great nation—has been wholly disappointed by the general election . None of its candidates have been elected , unless Ave consider Lord Goderich to be a people ' s man . His knowledge would make him so ; but tho people has not had the opportunity

    ol placing any one of its own class in " the peoples chamber . " ' fhe total exclusion of people ' s men , we conceive , eauses sonic uneasiness to Conservatives : if is almost too strong . The pretence of representation for the people begets m them the expectation of being represented ; aud then , when they corno to _talio part , in the election ol' their representative , and aro called " the vile nibble , " thoy are naturally irritated . They hoc tli | roiigh the farce .

    "J _rotectionists" are returned in greater force . What are they going to protect ? Ih if tlto labourer H I f . so , how P There is no time to lose . Reaping machines , and hay-making machines , are superseding the use of hand-labour ill tho agricultural districts . A hay-making machine can throw out a dozen men ; and the same of the reaping machine . Tho dozen men , standing Idle ,

    The Retribution Of Cant "England Expects...

    see the horse and wooden frame doing their work ; growinghungry , perchance also become angry ; and in Essex there is a movement to destroythe stacks of farmers who employ machinery . The development in machinery is necessary to place agriculture on an equality with manufactures ; but natural justice revolts against any improvement which destroys human beings . The indignation of . the Essex labourers is a just indignation . It is quite possible , indeed , to develope machinery without destroying human beings . On the contrary , ihe welfare of every man in

    Essex should be promoted by that which tends to develope the productive powers of Essex ; and it would be so , if there were a right understanding between all classes of Englishmen in that county . The reason why the development of machinery destroys human beings in Essex is twofold : it is , proximately , the want of right understanding between the several classes of Englishmen ; primarily , it is the want of education which prevents labourers from being fitted for

    skilled employment , or from knowing how to avail themselves of its opportunities , and which prevents farmers from , knowing how to bring extended labour in operation upon the soil by the help of machinery . But while the farmers are beginning to understand that rent is their sole tie to the landlord's ground , the labourers are beginning to see that Protection only stopped their bread , and now leaves them at the mercy of machinery . They burn stacks .

    Education would make them know better most intelligent men think , in private , that there ought to be education , without waiting for sects to reconcile their differences first ; but , publicly , they defer to the sects , and there is no education . So burning hay-stacks remain the beacon to mark the progress of agricultural improvement . Eree-trade has abolished protection for a particular kind of industry ; but the demand for protection to other kinds is rising rather then declining . In all directions Englishmen are asking for help to stand up for their own rights .

    Necessary as the ballot is , it is liable to the grand objection—that it is to enable an Englishman to do under shelter that which he ought to be able to do without any shelter at all . The meeting at the Oddfellows Hall at Halifax last week exemplifies the way in which the working classes fail to rely upon themselves . They obtained a Ten-hours' Bill in 1847 ; they now complain that they are defrauded of its benefit , and they intend petitioning the new Parliament for supplemental legislation of the same kind . The working men think that tho time ousrht to bo limited to ten hours—that is

    their opinion , or it is not : aud yet wo find them habitually submitting to longer periods of work . Thoy obtain an Act to restrict it ; the Act is not sufficient for its purpose ; and they want some more statute ; with what hope of complete benefit we do not know . Some of those who think that labour ought to be restricted to ten hours have been promoting tho election of Sir Charles Wood , ihe great opponent of the Ten Hours' Bill . It appears to vis , that while ihe great body of the people submit to / exist without the franchise ; submit to accept / " rom Parliament made by other

    Classen-, _a-rrfmrYi-f . t . i , the _huqLoii ml i / - im' _. iu _! _.... _. \ f Classen , _oribmit io the systematic evasion of those statutes , there can be no expectation of more respectful or honest ; treatment : And most especially while a whole people , thinking one way , contracts a habit , of suffering all its acts to fall short of its thoughts , no substitutes for decision in the shape of " resolutions" at public meetings , of " associations to promote , " or

    " statutes for iho better regulation , " can secure its real wishes . A nation realizes , not what it thinks , but what it does ; and as individuals make up fhe nation , fhe shortcomings of each are the shortcomings of all . We havo just been electing a Parliament lo do that which none of us wishes , and not to do that which we do wish ; aud while we consent thus to forego our own purpose , all Parliaments are vain .

    J.Nfji.Ani) And Amialtlca A'I' Tiitkek H...

    J . _NfJI . ANI _) AND AMIaltlCA A'I' TIITKEK HAM .. Oittsidk of the dull routine of party politics , _nrogrenH is made every day in the ouhlie apprehension of truly national objects . If we want . to see how tho country is really advancing from its present disagreeable and anxious position , towards nn active prosperity , wo may nook the evidence in , strange places—such , ior instance , us

    J.Nfji.Ani) And Amialtlca A'I' Tiitkek H...

    amidst the waving harvest of Mr . Mechi ' s farm , and around his hospitable board , at Tiptree Hall , in Essex . At the elections they are still wranf ling over the decomposed corpse of Protection _, n the newspapers , they are still discussing the European settlement of 1815 , or the exploded American agitations of 1835 or 1845 , which , across the water , are almost as ancient dates as 1815 on this side . It is at the Tiptree Hall dinner - table that the future of farming . is found ; it is on the reclaimed heath of the city Cincinnatus that the American Alliance takes an airing amid the representatives of every class of the country , and of many foreign ministers .

    The object of Protection , we have often said , was a just one , and ought not to be abandoned because an iniquitous or a dishonest means of securing that object is abandoned ; the less since it is perfectly attainable . The object of Ereetrade is a pre-eminently just one , and must be permanently secured in full . But the two are not at all incompatible . Eree-trade aims at promoting the largest amount of production by facilitating exchanges between those who are reciprocally producers and consumers . The object of Protection was to secure that the industry of the producer should not be disappointed in return . If there were a right understanding between the several classes and sections of the

    country , the simple fact would secure the object of Protection . Every town contains the raw materials of agriculture in a form more precious than that which certain enterprising _citizens have talked of bringing from Peru , on the shores of the Pacific , by the force of imperial fleets . Every field supplies the raw material of humanity . The farmer does but grow the British nation in its vegetable state , and the British nation can supply the farmer from the mine which science has begun to appreciate , with wealth amply apportioned to his requirements . Each

    possessing exactly what the other wants , nothing but a complete understanding can be needed . The idea is by no means a new one : the novelty is to see the constantly increasing assemblage of inquirers drawn from the most influential , intelligent , and practical classes of society , assembling to see the truth experimentally illustrated on Mr . Mechi ' s farm : it is not only in the flourishing state of his crops—it is not only in the after-dinner speeches that this progress is illustrated ; stdl more is it shown in that free and

    friendly intercourse and conversation , where Free-traders and Protectionists find , to their mutual astonishment , that tbey are approaching a common ground — arc , indeed , already beginning io shake hands in mutual congratulation at finding a broader truth which includes both iheir half-truths . Tin , spirit which reigned over iho delightful meeting at Tiptree Hall was the master-spirit of the Agriculture of iho Future .

    Yes , the principle of a common understanding is so sound and powerful that it can teach Free-traders and Protectionists , whoso eyes are turned to the future instead of the past , to seek a common object , and to labour for it in concert . But ihe great truths which flashed upon the meeting _Mere not confined to the field of agriculture : international politics had iheir share . The ; host had already shown that neither his merchandize nor his field labour had kept his eyes away from the milium con which are rising iu fhe world , and he had more than once glanced at that great power which may be evoked if statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic have

    sufficient foresight and honesty—the Anglo-American alliance . And the closing speech of the day was a new manifesto in favour of that alliance from one of the American commissioners , the Don . , | . L . White . He gave voice to fhe boast , in which his English auditors must have shared , that ( he two great countries have a community in their ancestry , in their laws , in their institutions , and their sympathies . " If any attempt

    were made , " ho said , " on the liberties of England by fhe combined despotisms of fhe continent , that sympathy would soon be shown . If any attempt were made on tho liberties of . England , that last , home of free institutions in Europe , live hundred thousand American rilles would leap to tho shoulder in defence ol' England . " The eloquent American legislator spoke with the unstinted hoart und lira of his country . We havo a right to claim his testimony iu support of our

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24071852/page/15/